The spoils were shared fairly equally this morning as BAFTA unveiled its 2025 Film Award nominations.
Conclave and Emilia Perez are out front with 12 and 11 noms apiece. The two high-concept pics are trailed closely by Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist (9), Sean Baker’s Anora (7), Dune: Part Two (7), and Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unkown (6).
“It’s been a super strong year for films. There’s a particularly strong range of films,” Anna Higgs, BAFTA Film Committee Chair, said of this afternoon’s nominations.
“You’ve got your dramas that are traditionally seen as awards movies, but we’ve got thrillers, musicals, biopics, horror, and comedy all in just the top 10 most nominated movies.”
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Highlighting the specific breadth of British films, best illustrated by what she described as the diversity of the Outstanding British Film nominees, Higgs added: “You go from the magical realism of an auteur like Andrea Arnold all the way through to madcap mayhem with Wallace and Gromit. And that shows you how healthy and exciting and innovative the filmmaking world is right now.”
This afternoon’s nominations were announced just over a week after the beginning of the LA fires, which have to date killed 24 people and consumed over 38,000 acres of land. In that time, many other traditional stops on the awards season calendar have been postponed or moved, including noms from the American Academy and the Critics’ Choice Awards ceremony. Bafta also canceled its annual LA tea party.
“We have a team in LA who run BAFTA North America. They’re a small but mighty team. And lots of our BAFTA members in the UK and globally are impacted by their friends and loved ones who live in LA. So we have been in constant contact and are working out the best ways to support them,” Higgs said this morning.
“We canceled the BAFTA Tea Party because we felt that was a really direct piece of action we could take quickly. And we’re monitoring the situation because it’s evolving minute by minute, let alone day by day.”
Higgs said it’s unclear whether the LA fires will further impact the Bafta film awards schedule, but the organization would continue to “track the situation as it evolves.” The BAFTA Film Awards ceremony is currently set for February 18
“The ceremony’s a month away, so we need to see how the situation evolves, but it’s far too early and there’s far too much changing hour by hour for us to make any comment on that now,” she said. “As we’re monitoring and evolving, we’ll make a statement as and when we need to.”
The Bafta Film Awards will return to London’s Southbank Centre this year and Doctor Who alum David Tennant will also reprise the role of host.
“It’s going to be an exciting one,” Higgs said. “We’ve got Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, and the Wicked stars who have really big and young followings, which can bring new audiences to the show and puts a spotlight on some of the more independent or debut movies and hopefully creates cinemagoers for life.”
With the Wicked cast in the building alongside the Emilia Perez trio and a Bob Dylan-induced Timothée Chalamet, can viewers expect a selection of elaborate music performances?
“Oh, I hope so,” Higgs said. “We’ve got a lot to live up to after the amazing Sophie Ellis-Bexter performance last year. It’s actually BAFTA’s most musical or musical-themed year in history because we have Kneecap, Wicked, A Complete Unknown, and Emilia Perez. What a range of musicals.”
One thing Bafta is hoping not to recreate this year, however, is its security protocols. At the 2024 Film Awards YouTube prankster Lizwani snuck on stage as Christopher Nolan and his Oppenheimer team accepted the award for Best Film.
“We’ve conducted a comprehensive review. There will be enhanced security measures in place, but we obviously can’t talk about those because it would breach that security,” Higgs said. “But the team has been incredible at working on that.”
Check out the full list of nominations here.
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